Table of Contents
Chris Crass’s short film tells Hawaiian ka’ao as origin stories, not as a claim about race. Darkness is Po, an empty deep where one flame can make a world. Keawe sets a sun overhead, then appears as a daughter and as Kane, and that pair starts a divine household. Chants keep four great gods together: Ku, Lono, Kanaloa, and Kane. Kanaloa belongs to the sea and marks springs that Kane makes flow. Maui, who can change shape, wants longer days for his mother Hina, who beats bark into cloth and loses the work when night comes early. With his brothers he traps the sun on Haleakala and wins a slower course for half the year. Pele is sent from Tahiti, sails with a brother called king of sharks, and after fighting her sister is said to live in Kilauea’s fire pit. Small forest people, the Menehune, are credited with raising a temple between dusk and dawn. Maui then breaks a dam a giant lizard built to drown his mother behind a waterfall.
Key points
- Po is pictured as a dark empty deep with a single creative flame.
- Keawe places the sun and becomes both a daughter figure and Kane.
- Ku, Lono, Kanaloa, and Kane are named as the four great gods, with Kanaloa linked to sea and springs.
- Maui snares the sun so his mother can finish bark cloth in longer daylight.
- Pele’s path runs from banishment in Tahiti to a volcanic home on Hawaii Island.
- Menehune are said to build a heiau in a single night, and Maui later frees Hina from a lizard’s flood.
Short quotes
Kanaloa is the least known of the gods and is lord of the ocean.
Chris Crass, Hawaiian myth short film
The film gives the sea god a quieter place beside the other three. Watch at 2:06
Her father, the king, banished her from Tahiti.
Chris Crass, Hawaiian myth short film
Pele’s story in the film begins with exile, not with the volcano. Watch at 5:09
Thus, in one night the heiau of Mo'okini was built.
Chris Crass, Hawaiian myth short film
The Menehune episode treats a famous temple as overnight work. Watch at 8:10
Video by Chris Crass. Watch on YouTube.